All News articles – Page 1530
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News
Quality solicitors for all
Having followed the QualitySolicitors debate in the Gazette you may feel we have been in a type of ‘phoney war’ for the past couple of years. Now the battle for the domestic and SME legal services sectors has started with the launch of QS’s Legal Access Points in WHSmiths around ...
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SPs eligible to become Judicial Appointments Commissioners
Sole practitioners are eligible to apply for a position as a Judicial Appointments Commissioner, the recruitment agency acting for the Ministry of Justice has confirmed, despite confusion over the wording of the job specification. The specification for the role states that candidates seeking to become a ...
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News
Mystery shopping should be used as a carrot not a stick
I was not surprised to read that the results of the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s mystery-shopping investigation into wills indicating varying quality among qualified and unqualified providers. Sadly, it seems the good-quality samples do not generate the same media coverage as those below standard – as is best practice in ...
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ITV clarifies Holden’s comments on QS
ITV’s This Morning has today clarified comments which were made by Amanda Holden in relation to QualitySolicitors. Following representations from the Law Society, QualitySolicitors agreed to ask the show to correct some comments made by the television presenter when she appeared as a guest of the ...
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1,000 wills-related files found on pavement
More than 1,000 files containing wills and other confidential information were recently found dumped on the pavement outside a will-writing company in Doncaster, the Society of Will Writers (SWW) revealed this week. The files were left by staff at another will-writing company, Gainsborough-based Minster Legal Services ...
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Law firm mergers trend ‘to accelerate’
A high proportion of small and medium-sized firms have completed mergers in the first half of 2011, new research by the Law Consultancy Network suggests. The third set of six-monthly statistics compiled by consultant Andrew Otterburn showed that one in three of the 31 firms surveyed ...
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Disappearing act
Obiter was amused last year by reports that some bobbies in the south-west had caused a stir by climbing through the open windows of houses, placing valuable items on show into a paper ‘swag bag’, and then leaving what must have been a remarkably irritating leaflet pointing out to homeowners ...
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Advertise the halo
Regarding Mr Simkins' letter, my firm does not pay referral fees either. But I doubt you can go about banning things just because you disagree with them. Besides, a referral fee is just outsourced marketing with payment by results. Is it just the marketing you want ...
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Misinformed view that legal aid is too easily available
I write in response to Mr Comport’s letter. I do not think he is ‘reactionary’ in respect of legal aid – he voices the legitimately held view of many people in the UK. I do however think he is misinformed.
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Twitter popular among judges - but they need to master the medium
The judges have started tweeting. Even though reporters are still waiting for final guidance from the judiciary on the use of ‘live, text-based communication from court’, senior judges have jumped the gun and embraced Twitter with enthusiasm. Not that you’ll see judges telling us what ...
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Legal assumptions will be challenged
Having started my presidential term representing the solicitors of England and Wales just three weeks ago, and spending many days since meeting senior judges, ministers and officials, I have become even more conscious that I take on this responsibility at a time when the entire profession stands on the cusp ...
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Big firms coy on external investment talks
Most leading law firms are discussing the potential for external investment ahead of the Legal Services Act coming fully into force – but they are not admitting to it, according to a financial advisory group. Few of the larger firms have shown any public interest in ...
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News
Thousands of the ‘Big Society’s’ most disadvantaged will be left vulnerable by law centre closures
Last month justice minister Jonathan Djanogly highlighted ‘the need to redefine and reposition the future role of not-for-profit agencies and their work’ as the government prepares to ‘reframe’ legal aid. He’d better get a move on; or is it too late already? A few short weeks ...
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Clyde & Co and BLG give merger details
Management at City firms Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert have revealed details of their forthcoming merger after partners gave their backing last week. The combined firm will be called Clyde & Co, and will have 270 partners, more than 1,250 fee earners and ...
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Diversity boss calls for 'inclusive culture' at legal firms
The incoming global head of diversity and inclusion at City giant Herbert Smith has warned that some law firms still need to do much more to create an ‘inclusive culture’. David Shields, a former director at gay rights organisation Stonewall, said some practices were more concerned ...
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News
E-petitions are dangerous and pointless – so why bother with them?
Winston Churchill once claimed that the best argument against democracy was a five-minute conversation with the average voter. One look at the terrifying e-petition website, and the old boy would doubtless have choked on his brandy in horror. What a Pandora’s box ...
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News
Human rights breakthrough in Mexico
Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that military personnel accused of human rights violations against lawyers and others should be tried in civilian courts instead of military courts, where violations have historically gone unpunished. The ruling follows the publication in March of a Law Society human rights ...
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One in three law centres set to shut down
At least a third of law centres will close if government plans to cut legal aid funding go ahead this autumn, solicitors have predicted. The warning came after the UK’s largest not-for-profit social welfare law firm, Law for All, went into administration, weeks after the Immigration ...
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Citizenship
United Kingdom citizenship - Deprivation of citizenship - Claimant becoming naturalised British citizen GI v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court (London): 19 July 2011 ...